Most helpful customer reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Canada dry mock, Jun 4 2001
This is my first encounter with Robertson Davies. I had never heard of him, and would not have read him if he weren't noted in the reader's list of the Modern Library's top 100 novels. And how unfortunate it would have been had I not picked up this book!The Cunning Man is an examination of the life of a doctor, told by himself. Asked to recall the story of the strange death of Father Ninian Hobbes which he witnessed, he recounts his past; his childhood, his schooling, the work of his profession, the influences that have made him who he is. In doing so, he shares with us his observations on the nature of life, love, art, illness, friendship, and many other things. Davies lets us have a picture of life, complete with accomplishments and disappointments, dreams and dreams undone, and makes it real and interesting and intelligent. I can understand the appeal he has for his fans and I will be reading more of Davies' books soon.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Unusual Yarn Well Told, Mar 8 2001
Robertson Davies remains far and away my favorite novelist. After reading this book, I was sorry that he was no longer around to continue putting out such entertaining work. Some people, even otherwise enthusiastic Davies fans, don't care much for this book. As a physician, perhaps this biased me in the book's favor, but I thought this the most enjoyable book I read in 2000. I've read all of Davies novels and would rank this high among them. The story never sagged, the characters were of the usual fascinating Davies' variety, and his humor had me laughing aloud again and again. Davies' narrator is Dr. Jonathan Hullah, a physician of unusual diagnostic skills and adroit healing powers. He is known as the cunning man, a term hearkening back to English village life in which a sort of village know-all could do a little of everything, from setting broken bones to doctoring horses. He was the wizard of folk tradition, the cunning man. The Cunning Man is Dr. Hullah's fascinating reminiscence of life, from boyhood apprenticeship with an old Indian healer to his service in the medical corps during World War II, then on to his unusual medical practice (which included such orthodox measures as having his patients strip off their clothes and lay on an exam table while he sniffed them.) Hullah narrates this while at the same time conducting a search into the mysterious death of his parish priest while saying mass. This combination memoir/mystery novel was, as I said earlier, the most pleasurable book I read in 2000. If the chief end of a novel is entertainment, then this book succeeded admirably.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
good for what ails you., Dec 19 2000
Davies once commented that he knew "nothing about medicine" but had the highest degree of "hypochondriachal curiosity about it that is characteristic of authors." (source: his 1984 lecture entitled Can A Doctor Be A Humanist?). Here in his final novel, Davies seems to have given vent to his curiosity in the creation of the character Jonathan Hullah... an unconventional physician who gains a reputation through his intuitive (albeit successful) diagnostic techniques. For the eccentric Hullah, observation of, conversation with, and even "sniffing" of the patient brings him closer to an accurate prognosis than ever would an impersonal reading of a medical chart. Central to this holistic approach to medicine is Hullah's appreciation of not only the physical/biological aspects of man's nature, but also the mental and spiritual, and because of this understanding, he becomes known as the Cunning Man. It is a term borrowed from Robert Burton's "The Anatomy Of Melancholy" in a passage that appears on Davies' title page: "Cunning men, wizards, and white witches, as they call them, in every village, which, if they be sought unto, will help almost all infirmities of body and mind... The body's mischiefs, as Plato proves, proceed from the soul: and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured."Through all of the great doctor's associations (as all the while, it applies also to himself) we find this theme played out... that to be truly healthy one must pay attention to MORE than merely the physical machine. I enjoyed this story, but I agree with several other reviewers that this is not Davies' finest book. It does not have quite the plot-strength of any of his other ten novels, but true Davies devotees will not dismantle their bearded statues over this. To the not-already worshipful, I encourage you that reading ANY Davies is better than to have not read him at all.
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